Tokyo, Japan: The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games was formally established on Friday and will be headed by a former Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshiro Mori. The appointments of Yoshiro Mori as President of the Tokyo Organising Committee and Toshiro Muto as Chief Executive Officer were also officially confirmed today.

Yoshiro Mori said: “I am honoured to have been selected to lead the new organising committee, and I am fully committed to ensuring that we will deliver a fantastic Games that will showcase the power of sport and further reinforce the Olympic values.

“I am also pleased that Mr Muto will serve as Chief Executive Officer of the organising committee. I believe he will provide the requisite strong leadership to organise the 3,000 staff members and the 80,000 volunteers who will be working during Games time.

”Now that the new organising committee has been established, our work begins in earnest. We will collaborate closely with the members of the Olympic and Paralympic Families and dedicate our entire efforts towards the successful delivery of a Games and a celebration of sport that will live long in the memories of all members of the Olympic Movement, the athletes, the spectators, and people watching around the world.”

A series of key meetings were held today at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, including the Multi-Party Leaders' Meeting (Olympic Board), the Executive Meeting at Incorporation, the Council Board Meeting and the Executive Board Meeting.

The Multi-Party Leaders' Meeting (Olympic Board) was attended by Yoshiro Mori, Tsunekazu Takeda, IOC member and President of the Japanese Olympic Committee, Toshiyuki Akiyama, Vice Governor of Tokyo, and Hakubun Shimomura, Minister in charge of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games and Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.